Design for Life

‘At long last something good on Lartigue's stereoscopy. Sincere congratulations: the stereoscope is very very effective, the choice of images is excellent, and the commentaries are impeccable.’

Jan Smorenburg, stereo collector, Netherlands

‘Congratulations, it's all, without exaggeration, excellent!! And it's all graphically designed extremely well!! The text in the booklet is well thought out, and I also found the explanation in the last pages of the book very interesting.’

Some of the 100 cards in the set

Henri Peyre (from his interview - see link alongside)

One of the 100 stereo photographs shown in Hidden Depths: on the front side, just above the image, there's a quotation by Lartigue taken from his journals ; on the back side some information about the photographer's life at the time he took the photo... an excellent work of iconography and very practical in use !

Don Munsil, President of the Puget Sound Stereo Camera Club, USA

‘Subject: More kudos for Lartigue stereoview set

I just got my Design for Life stereocard set of Lartigue stereoviews. It's uniformly excellent. The overall design of the whole package is astonishingly good. It's perhaps a bit expensive, but worth every penny.

I highly recommend getting the stereoscope. The cards are a non-standard size, so while you can use a lorgnette or make an adapter for a Holmes-style stereoscope, the matching stereoscope from Design for Life really enhances the whole experience. It's quite a clever design as well, so worth having just as a nifty stereo gizmo.

The stereoscope is folded from a single piece of frosted plastic. By using this material, the stereoscope allows in diffuse light from all directions, illuminating the stereocard evenly without glare. That alone is a wonderful innovation, and one I certainly hope will be adopted by other stereoscope designers. In fact, I encourage Bill Hibbert to design a variant that would accept standard 7" wide stereoviews, as I'd buy one in a New York minute.

The cards themselves are quite nice, with interesting information on both sides about both Lartigue and the specific view. The card numbers themselves are done in a variety of styles and can be viewed stereoscopically by viewing the back of the card in the viewer. The quality of the printing is top-notch, though still not quite as good as a continuous-tone photographic print. The cards use stochastic screening, which is similar to the way inkjet printers produce output, so while the screen is very fine and pseudo-random, there is a faint speckling visible. Still, these are by far the best lithographic stereoviews I've yet seen. Most people will not mind the faint speckling at all, and in fact would probably mistake it for film grain.

The views are almost all very fine examples of stereo photography. Some have blurry foreground or background elements, though I didn't find this objectionable. Almost all of the views have considerable stereo “pop”.

Personally, I would categorize this as a “must buy”. I have no affiliation with Bill Hibbert or Design for Life at all.’

Shab Levy, Cascade Stereo Club and Portland 3D Center, USA

‘I am very impressed with the great work you did. From the design of the presentation, to the quality of the printing, the meticulous details and notes - and the clear and precise explanation of the concept of the stereo window. Congratulations!’

John Goodman, stereo collector, USA

‘The package arrived, in perfect condition (on a Sunday, no less).
What a galaxy of pleasure your labor of love provides! Not only is every aspect of the printing and contents superlative, but your erudite and expressive homage to Lartigue's sensibility, and the stereoscopic presentation that you perfected, image by image, offer an unrivaled experience of the world within Lartigue's photographs, and should be counted a seminal event in their appreciation. ’